Jo Ann Brown

Jo Ann Brown has been creating characters and stories for as long as she can remember. Her first stories were populated with her friends and sisters. She wrote her first novel in high school, and it happily resides in the very back of her file cabinet. Fast forward through college, serving in the Army as a quartermaster officer, getting married, and increasing her blessings with three children...and Jo Ann sold her first book (a western historical romance) in 1987. Since it was published in 1988, she has sold over 100 titles and has become a best-selling and award-winning author. Romantic Times called her "a truly talented author." She writes romance, mystery, and paranormal under a variety of pen names. She currently writes for Harlequin Love Inspired Historical and Guideposts mystery series as Jo Ann Brown, and she writes paranormal, Regency romances, and mysteries for ImaJinn. She also is co-authoring an Amish series for Berkley with Cameron Dokey. They write as Marianne Ellis.

Her books have been translated into nearly a dozen languages and are sold on every continent except Antarctica. A sought-after speaker, she has been teaching creative writing for over 20 years, and she established several popular fiction courses at Brown University.

She has always lived on the east coast, but now resides in Nevada with her husband and two chubby cats.